FosterPower is a movement to improve the lives and futures of youth in foster care by creating access to information on their benefits, protections, and legal rights. FosterPower's award-winning free app and website gives Florida's foster youth access to easy, digestible information about their benefits, protections, and legal rights (independent living, medical health, education, the court process, placement, protections for LGBTQ+ youth, monetary allowance, and more). It also includes 40 short-form videos sharing the experiences of former youth in foster care. In addition, FosterPower provides training for youth in foster care and adults (child welfare professionals, judges, attorneys, foster parents, etc.) Launched in May 2023, FosterPower has reached over 4,000 app downloads, 10,000 web users, 100,000 video views, and trained over 400 youth and adults. FosterPower's impact has garnered praise from members of Congress; it has earned recognition from national media outlets, including NPR's All Things Considered, theSkimm, The Annie E. Casey Foundation blog, and several networks throughout Florida; and it has received multiple awards, such as the 2024 American Legal Technology Awards, 2024 InnovAction Award by the College of Law Practice Management, 2024 Tampa Bay Inno Awards, and the 2023 Florida's Children First "Outstanding Non-Profit Champion for Children" Award. This initiative is the first of its kind nationwide. In 2024 and the coming years, FosterPower plans to add an immigration section and a human trafficking section with companion training, expand in Florida, and replicate in other states across the US. There are over 23,000 children in Florida's overburdened child welfare system—over 390,000 across the United States—and many of them do not know their benefits, protections, and legal rights—until now! FosterPower is a program created and managed by Bay Area Legal Services.
*Not legal advice.
